This new DS game is pretty cool. Gots all sorts of little brain stretchy exercises in it, and it's fun too. Right now has hijacked my DS and is stretching his brain on my game. Hmmph. So I was sitting on the couch playing it earlier. One of the games is a Stroop test – where you say out loud the color of the word, and not the word itself. For instance, if you saw yellow you would say “red” and not “yellow”. I'm in the middle of this exercise and my Siamese comes up to me, obviously convinced that…

Rolling blackouts hit Austin 4/17/2006 5:20 PM By: News 8 Austin Staff Record spring heat has created an emergency situation for the state's power grid and led to some rolling blackouts in Austin. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is asking electricity customers to cut usage to a minimum. That means keeping the thermostat set at 78 or higher, turning off electric lights unless needed for safety reasons and keeping the refrigerator and freezer shut as much as possible. Austin Energy officials say the power shortage is the source of rolling blackouts around town that will continue until around…

You know, when my parents wrote letters to their congressmen and senators, they got back replies that indicated their letter was actually read. Now? I get a reply that goes something like this: Dear , Thank you for contacting me regarding [insert topic here]. [insert paragraph about topic, with no apparent acknowledgment of my concerns and that I want the govt. to butt out, and, usually, assurances that said representative is Working Hard To Protect Me.] Plus, I think the signature is a stamp. Feh.

Well, I guess it's about time for an update! I've been meaning to post this all week, but somehow never got to it. Better late than never, eh? Saturday: I went to Beer School! A local brewpub was having a brewery tour/learning type thing, and I managed to (a) find out about it and (b) get in on one of their limited spaces. It was a lot of fun. I learned that while hops smell pretty good that I do not like beer with a strong hop taste (India Pale Ale). I learned that malted barley tastes kinda like grape…

Erk. Gotta figure out how to put a counter onto the sidebar somehow. I've seen all sorts of fancy schmancy LJ styles albeit most unreadable so I know it can be done.